Test reports
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Test reports
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»We bought two Ariadnes at a time. What is the use of a single Ethernet card. The card was packed neatly. Installing the card is easy as with all Zorro cards. Computer open, card inserted, computer closed and that's it. The card is clearly arranged and offers 3 ports. After a few eMails to Village Tronic it was clear, that the Ariadne II contains seriall ports and a prallel port. But these aren't useable. Why they are on the card and if they can made useable no one could tell me.
The card offers a 10Base2 (BNC, RG58) and a 10Base-T (twisted pair, RJ45) connector and a LED for the link status, More LED connectors are on the card.
A T-connector for the BNC connector and a terminator are included. Cables are typically missing. The Ariadne works as a 10MBit-Ethernet board. The full duplex mode is supported. It is possible to plug a flash-ROM into the Ariadne.
So it is theoretically possible to boot a computer without hard drive via the network.
The software is delivered on 2 disks. An installer script is included. So disk inserted and installed. Then an embarrassed breakdown. The drivers and tools of the first disk are complete, but where is Genesis? So 2nd disk taken and installed by hand. In addition to the Sana2 drivers AmiTCP and its GUI Genesis are included in an OEM version. I haven't found out yet where the limitations are.
Using AmiTCP or Miami it is no problem operating the Ariadne in TCP/IP networks. All known protocols are supported. If you get the needed programs from the Aminet this works: FTP, HTTP, Telnet, POP3 and SMPT, Finger, Netbios with Samba and much more. This is not only possible as a client like in the Internet, but as a server. Even DMS servers shouldn't be a problem. As amiga specific possibilities there are the Net filesystem to mount drives of the other Amigas connected to the network and of course, Envoy.
All the protocols run parallel and don't interfere with another. The configuration of AmiTCP or Miami is quite difficult for the network beginner. This is not the fault of Ariadne, but a problem of TCP/IP networks.
Much more easy to use and to recommend as network software for connecting an Amiga to an Amiga is Envoy.
The transmitting speeds are alright. With Envoy we gott approx. 600-700 KB/s. Other protocols like FTP are a bit slower.
We tested the Ariadne with a Linux-PC and of course, with a second Amiga.
The price of shortly to 200.00 DEM (approx. 102.04 Euro) is quite expensive compared with PC cards, but you get a complete package. If you want to use the Amiga as a server you can use free of charge software and don't need to buy Windows NT for servers for more than 1000.00 DEM (approx. 510.20 Euro). A driver for Linux already exists.
The card can be bought from the manufacturer Village Tronic or from your local dealer.
Michael Schulz <MSchulzWellmitz@t-online.de>«
